Taking a Sick Day

Both the House and Senate have just passed UNANIMOUSLY resolutions that condemn white supremacist, KKK and neo-Nazi hate groups.  Impressive as this sounds, it also honestly is pretty much a no-brainer.  But still, good for them.  

The resolution was sent to the White House yesterday for Trump to sign and join in.  And when asked about it, the White House spokesperson said -- are you ready -- "No announcements at this time."

Really.

It's difficult to express the sickness of this, but then I really don't think I have to.  I'm just going to guess that it's pretty obvious. After all, that's sort of the whole point of both the House and Senate passing the resolution UNANIMOUSLY.

After Trump's first visit to Houston following Hurricane Harvey (and not long after Charlottesville), I heard a commentator say, incredulously, "There are two slam dunk things a president gets to do.  Condemn neo-Nazis and hug disaster victims.  And Trump actually failed on both of them!"

And this is a massive fail.  It doesn't matter if the White House announces that Trump will be signing the resolution in gold leaf today on special parchment.  In fact, it wouldn't have even mattered if the spokesperson announced only two minutes later that Trump had decided he would indeed be signing it.  This is an immediate, "Of course!" thing.  And that's without needing a UNANIMOUS vote of the House and Senate to support you.  Any delay -- even a double-hitch twinge before answering -- is too long.  You delay a moment and you've given your answer who you are.

The next time Trump or one of his spokespeople whines about how he doesn't get credit for his belated, grudging statement several days after Charlottesville that hate groups were bad -- never mind there being some very nice people among them, and problems on many sides -- I hope amid their crocodile tears of angst they remember those five sick words.  "No announcements at this time."

​Sometimes, silence isn't golden, but dross.